


Second Chance for a First Impression

by laurus_nobilis



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Crossover, Donna Noble Remembers, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Post-Canon, Post-Recovery Bucky Barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-26 19:56:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20747858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurus_nobilis/pseuds/laurus_nobilis
Summary: Bucky meets Donna when he's rebuilding his life, and then again when she's rebuilding hers.





	Second Chance for a First Impression

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aurilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurilly/gifts).

Bucky didn't know where the weird bug aliens had come from, but at this point in his life he just didn't question that kind of thing. That was the only constant: it could always get worse. He kicked the alien closest to him in what he supposed was the face, jumped away from its reach, and ran through the narrow passages between the market stalls. He needed more room if he was going to put up a good fight, and that meant he had to get out on the streets. Fortunately, all the other people had already done that, so at least he didn't have to worry about getting innocent bystanders out of the way.

Or so he'd thought.

"Hey, you!" a woman shouted from somewhere behind him. "You're running in the wrong direction!"

He turned around, ready to tell her to run away, but she didn't give him time for that.

"That's where their ship is! Come on, this way!"

Bucky could have ignored her, but his gut feeling was that she was telling the truth. He quickly caught up with her and then paced himself to match her speed. She ran fast, for someone who just looked like a normal civilian. Between that and her assertiveness, he was pretty sure that she was used to this kind of situation.

"All those people who left the market," he said. "They're also running straight into the ship."

"Don't worry, my friend is there to stop them before they get in trouble. You just had to stay until you were the last, didn't you?"

"_You_ were the last," he pointed out. She laughed - or tried to, and then she panted. But she didn't stop running.

"And aren't you lucky for that."

She didn't stop until they turned a corner and reached a dead end. That wasn't an accident, however. She looked very relieved, even though there was nothing there but a blue police box. It really shouldn't have been there. Wrong country, to begin with. But Bucky had too many questions he wanted to ask at the same time, so he started with the most important one.

"Who are you?"

"Oh! Sorry, all the running makes me forget the small talk. I'm Donna."

Her answer didn't really explain anything, but it did make him realize he had skipped the small talk too.

"Bucky," he said. He decided his next question should be blunter. "So, you fight aliens often?"

"Sometimes. Sometimes I befriend them, sometimes I just run. You meet a lot of weird people when you travel through time and space."

"I… don't think you should go around telling that to people you've just met."

She waved a hand at him, as if he'd said something very silly.

"We've 'just met' running from a swarm of bug aliens, how's being coy going to help?"

That, Bucky had to admit, was a very good point. And he liked the directness. He nodded at her.

"I do feel kind of bad about _running_ from the bug aliens," he admitted. "I should be out there helping."

"No, don't worry about it. You can't help unless you have some weird space force field machine thingy. The Doctor - that's the friend I mentioned - he's taking care of that."

"Oh." Bucky wasn't sure how to feel about that. Surprised, definitely, and after a moment he also settled on relieved. "Well. I think this might be the shortest danger I've ever been in."

"Told you you were lucky. You haven't even lost your shopping bags."

Bucky blinked and looked down at his hands. He hadn't paid attention to that, but she was right. He still had all his groceries with him.

"Great," he said. "Want some fruit?"

"Sure," Donna replied. "If you're not in a hurry. All I have to do now is wait here and that gets boring fast."

"I've got nothing to do either," said Bucky.

It was odd. He'd spent all this time trying his best to lie low, and now here he was, making friends with some random person he'd known for all of five minutes. He'd even told her his real name, he noticed far too late, but then he also found that he wasn't worried about it at all. Maybe it was the general situation: two really weird people, standing in an alley sharing apples and talking about aliens. Maybe it was just that he knew it wouldn't last.

* * *

The next time they met, in London, Bucky had a different arm and a different haircut and no dangerous lists of words lurking somewhere in his brain. He also had a job to do, but the good news was that gathering intelligence involved a lot of sitting around in parks pretending to read. Sometimes it was quiet enough that he could even read for real, too. He liked that. He had a lot of science fiction pulp to catch up with.

He got distracted, not by his mark, but by a surprisingly familiar voice nearby.

"Oi! Leave that dog alone!"

A couple of kids ran laughing past his bench, and Bucky looked back at where the voice had come from. Sure enough, it was Donna herself, petting a very ugly stray. He grinned to himself. It was like he had a magnet for this kind of people. He stood up to approach her.

"Donna?"

She turned towards him, and frowned slightly.

"I know you," she said. It wasn't quite a question, but between the tone of her voice and her expression, it was enough to make Bucky's heart sink. He knew that look. "Where do I know you from?"

"Bucharest," he replied, hoping his smile didn't look too strained. "Bug aliens."

Donna stared at him for a moment. Then her face lit up.

"Yes! Aliens! That's why I couldn't place you!" She gave him a bear hug without any kind of warning. "You're the apple guy!"

"That's me," Bucky said. "I thought you'd remember the aliens more than the apples, though."

She let go of him at last, so she could look at him again.

"Oh, that. It's a long story."

"I've got time," he said. It was true. His plans for the rest of the afternoon only involved sitting on the same bench he'd already been on, and he could still do that while listening to what Donna had to say. He'd been here for hours and he doubted his mark was going to show up today, after all. But he'd feel better if he stuck around.

Donna agreed to stay in the park, but she insisted on buying something to eat first. In exchange for the apples, she said. Bucky didn't argue, because he could tell that was a losing battle and he was hungry anyway. She returned a few minutes later with some chips to share.

"So, the long story I promised," she began to say.

It was long indeed. It also, as Bucky had suspected, involved memory loss. He hadn't been wrong about her look. Fortunately - like his own story - it had got a happy ending in the recent past.

"… anyway, then I met this blonde lady, she wore a lot of rainbows. The moment I saw her, my head felt like it was going to explode."

"She had something to do with the Doctor?"

"She _was_ the Doctor. Aliens, hah. Turns out her species can completely change their looks and their, well, everything. Keeps them alive longer or something like that."

Bucky nodded along. He'd met a space raccoon, this kind of thing didn't even register as surprising by now. Donna went on with her story.

"Anyway, she said she had a solution. I had no idea for what, because I didn't think I had any problems until she showed up. And then she explained the story to me, you know, everything I just told you. Except now she'd discovered a fix. And I know how that sounds, why would I believe her, right? But the headache alone was confirming everything. So I thought, well, can't get worse, and I let her try her telepathy."

She made a pause for effect, which was kind of pointless given that they both knew the outcome of the story already. Bucky politely indulged her.

"And it worked," he said.

"It worked! Well, it started to," she clarified. "She said it's too dangerous for everything to come back at once. But there are things that can trigger memories. Like you, Apple Guy."

"It's Bucky," he told her. He was starting to think that perhaps he should share his own story, or at least part of it, after Donna had been so open - but he didn't have time to say any of that. Her eyes widened, and she gave him a playful punch on the shoulder.

"Of course! I know where else I know you from!" said Donna. "Not many Buckys this century, are there?"

Bucky tensed, at first. Ever since the whole mess with Zemo, it had been public knowledge that Bucky Barnes and the Winter Soldier were one and the same. It would have been more than understandable if she didn't want anything else to do with him… And then he realized that she'd punched him after figuring out his identity.

One of these days, he was going to meet at least one person who had a little bit of a survival instinct. Maybe.

"So you don't mind that I…?"

"Are you kidding?" she interrupted him. "You're a famous hero! Oh, I've got to take you to meet my grandfather. He's going to be over the moon."

Bucky smiled in relief. No, he thought, it was more than that. He felt… touched. He was past the time when he'd thought he couldn't make friends anymore - Wakanda had proved him wrong about that - but it was still meaningful, to him.

"Thanks. I mean it," he said. Then he saw something over Donna's shoulder, a man with a briefcase stepping off a car. "But… do you mind waiting a little longer?"

"Sure, that's fine. Why?"

"I think my mark just got here after all." He grinned at her. He considered telling her to wait here, but, well. All signs pointed to that not happening. "You want to go an a spy adventure?"

Donna grinned right back at him, and he knew he'd made the right choice.


End file.
